While maintaining that there is ample availability of wheat in the country, the Centre on Thursday issued a revised order on stock limit, reducing the maximum quantity by 75 per cent to only 250 tonnes from 1,000 tonnes earlier for the traders with immediate effect. As traders have been given 15 days to comply with the direction of off-loading the excess stock over 250 tonnes, the validity of the order until March 31 will in effect allow its implementation for only after March 5.
“(The) Government of India keeps a close watch on the prices of wheat and takes suitable appropriate interventions to ensure price stability for the consumers in the country…As part of continuous efforts to moderate prices of wheat, Central government has decided to revise the wheat stock limit applicable until March 31, 2025,” the Food Ministry said in a statement.
While limit has been reduced to 250 tonnes from 1,000 tonnes for trader/wholesaler under the revised order, retailers and big chain retail outlets have been told to keep maximum 4 tonnes of wheat at any point of time, against 5 tonnes earlier. Processors have been told to keep effectively same quantity as their monthly installed capacity (MIC) until April 2025.
Price spike in FCI sale
The decision has come a day after a sudden spike in price of wheat in the e-auction conducted by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) on February 19 where 3,99,940 tonnes out of 4,00,000 tonnes of wheat offered got sold. On Wednesday, the highest bid price in the FCI’s e-auction in Uttar Pradesh was ₹3,159/quintal and lowest was ₹2,958/quintal. As many as 168 buyers had bid above ₹3,000 per quintal, while only 30 processors had bid below ₹3,000/quintal. In contrast, the highest bid price in the sState was ₹3,010/quintal and lowest was ₹2,520/quintal on February 12 auction.
The government asked wheat stocking entities to continue to register on the wheat stock limit portal and update the stock position every Friday. “Any entity which is found to have not registered on the portal or violates the stock limits will be subject to suitable punitive action under Section 6 & 7 of Essential Commodities Act,1955,” the government said.
In order to manage the overall food security and to prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation, the Government of India imposed stock limits on wheat applicable to Traders/Wholesalers, Retailers, Big Chain Retailers and Processors in all States and Union Territories on June 24, 2024 and last revised on December 11, 2024.